PAST AND PRESENT TRUTH
Before we journey into the ten conditions of the mind or ten mindsets, there is one other truth to be aware of. Satan is “mindful” of the things of men. Satan is the formidable enemy of mankind, especially believers. Mark chapter eight records an interesting exchange between Jesus and Peter. Jesus had just told the disciples that He would go to the cross. In verse 32, Peter took Jesus by the hand and led Him aside from the other disciples. Privately Peter rebuked Jesus for saying such a thing. In verse 33, Jesus said to Peter:
“Get thee behind me Satan! For you do not have a mind intent on promoting what God wills, but what pleases men [you are not on God’s side, but that of men.”
SATAN CAN CONTROL YOUR MIND
Satan is a thinker! He is interested in the condition of your mind. If, through his efforts, he can promote a spiritually unhealthy mindset, then he can have control of your mind – both the way you think and what you think. The enemy has the power to blind the mind of man (2 Corinthians 3:14; 4:4). Jesus came to open the eyes, both spiritual and physical, of the blind (Luke 4:18; John 11:37). Satan’s intent is to conceal the truth and to promote spiritual blindness. The enemy wants you to forget. God wants you to remember (Revelation 2:5; 3:3).
FORGET AND REMEMBER
A quick reaction to what I am saying might be: But the Bible says in Philippians 3:13:
“…forgetting those things which are behind.”
To forget does not mean to remember. The past can still come to mind; it can be remembered. Forgetting means that the past is no longer an issue. For example, you may be hurt by someone, and unless you internalize that hurt, it will not become a wound. (A sin is self-inflicted, but a wound is otherwise inflicted.) You can forget that past experience to the degree that it no longer is an issue when it comes to mind. You get over it, get beyond it, and get on with it.
SATAN WANTS US TO FORGET
The enemy wants you to forget. God wants you to remember (Revelations 2:5; 3:3). There is a rather long passage in 2 Peter 1:4- 10, that I call The Second Peter Principle, which clearly makes this point. Let us read it from The Amplified Bible:
“By means of these, He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from moral decay (rottenness and corruption that is in the world because of covetousness lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature. For this reason, adding your diligence [to the divine promises], employ every effort in exercising your faith to develop virtue (excellence, resolution, Christian energy), and in [exercising] virtue [develop] knowledge (intelligence). And in [exercising] knowledge [develop] self- control, and in [exercising] self-control [develop] steadfastness (patience, endurance), and in [exercising] steadfastness [develop] godliness (piety). And in [exercising] godliness [develop] brotherly affection, and in [exercising] brotherly affection [develop] Christian love. For as these qualities are yours and increasingly abound in you, they will keep [you] from being idle or unfruitful unto the [full personal] knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One). For whoso lacks these qualities is blind, [spiritually] short-sighted, seeing only what is nearhim, and has become oblivious [to the fact] that he was cleansed from his old sins. Because of this, brethren, be all the more solicitous and eager to make sure (to ratify, to strengthen, to make steadfast) your calling and election; for if you do this, you will never stumble or fall.”
BELIEVE WITH YOUR HEART AND MIND
Note the phrase, “For if these qualities are in you…” The meaning here is that the qualities must go beyond mental assent to believing in your heart. It is not enough to agree that the Word is truth and that these qualities are desirable and even preferable. One must take the Word into his heart until it is solidified in his thinking and believing so that his acting conforms to the qualities listed. If he truly believes to the point of incorporating these qualities into his character, the Apostle Peter is telling us that there are benefits, i.e., it will make you effective (vs. 8), it will make you productive (vs.
8), and it will keep you from falling (vs. 10).
THINKING VERSUS BELIEVING
By contrast, note the phrase, “For whoso lacks this.” The meaning here is that the Word has not become solidified in one’s thinking and believing. Therefore, the qualities are lacking. The behaviour does not conform to the Word of God. If this is the case, there are consequences which are listed in verse 9: spiritual blindness, spiritual short sightedness, and loss of memory. The point is that the devil wants to muddle your memory, while God wants you to remember.
UNDERSTAND YOUR ERRORS
Remembering brings conviction from the Holy Spirit. Conviction is the state of being convinced of error or compelled to admit the truth. Change cannot occur until one is convinced of his error. This will never happen in the mind of one who is spiritually blind, spiritually short sighted, or who does not remember what God has said. Remembering brings the conviction of one’s error as illustrated in Matthew 26:75. After Peter had denied the Lord three times, he heard the cock crow, and he remembered the Lord had said it would happen, and he went out, and wept bitterly. Remembering brought conviction.
REMEMBERING IN THE SCRIPTURES
The Bible speaks of remembering in several places. In Luke 24, when the women returned to Jesus’ tomb to discover He was gone, two angels spoke to them and told them to remember (vs. 6) the words Jesus had spoken to them. In verse eight, “They remembered His words.” The writer of Hebrews says in chapter 10 verse 32, “But call to
remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured
a great fight of afflictions.” The Amplified Bible translates the verse like
this:
“But be ever mindful of the days gone by in which, after you were first spiritually enlightened, you endured a great and painful struggle.”
Paul quoted Jesus in 1 Corinthians 11:24-25, as saying about the Lord’s
Supper, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” Peter told his readers in 2 Peter 1:12-13,
“Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the truth. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance.”
We are told to remember Lot’s wife, (Luke 17:32), to remember His words (John 15:20), remember the poor (Galatians 2:10), and remember those who are in bonds (Hebrews 13:3). The enemy does not want us to remember so he can blind us, make us forget, and thus alienate us from the life of God. Ephesians 4:18 says:
“Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.”
OUR MEMORY IN GOD
God has a fourfold function for our memory:
(1) to bring conviction, like Peter,
(2) to be a form of protection against repeating our godless behavior,
(3) to promote stability,
(4) to promote fellowship.
The weeping prophet Jeremiah listed in painful detail his feelings of depression in the Book of Lamentations chapter three. The very least of his troubled spirit is expressed in verse five:
“He has built up [siege mounds] against me and surrounded me with bitterness, tribulation, and anguish”
In addition, notice what he says in verse 20:
“My soul has them continually in remembrance and is bowed down within me.”
He is weighted down with the memory of his troubles. Then the prophet suddenly gushes forth some of the most precious words ever spoken. Beginning with verse 21
“But this I recall and therefore have I hope and expectation: It is because of the Lord’s mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great and abundant is your stability and faithfulness. The Lord is my portion or share, says my living being (my inner self); therefore will I hope in Him and wait expectantly for Him. The Lord is good to those who wait hopefully and expectantly for Him, to those who seek Him {inquire of and for Him and require Him by right of necessity and on the authority of God’s word]. It is good that one should hope in and wait quietly for salvation (the safety and ease) of the Lord.”
Remembering brings hope!
